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C. S. N. 



BY 



W. W. BAKER, OF Chesterfield. 



EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN, Ph. D. 

I 



Richmond Va. 

The Richmond Pbess 

1910. 



zy 



o^ 



^»1 



Copyright, 1910. 
By Douglas S. Freeman. 



(L CI. A 2 80 54 3 



INTRODUCTION. 



While serving as one of the editors of the Richmond Times- 
Dispaich, the writer learned that his friend, the Honorable 
W. W. Baker, of Chesterfield County, had prepared a series 
of articles describing his adventures in the War Between the 
States. Mr, Baker's well known modesty had kept him 
from offering these articles for publication, and only the 
insistent demands of a few personal friends had ever induced 
him to write of his part in the war. After many interviews, 
Mr. Baker finally consented to permit me to publish his 
articles. This was done, with a result which no readers of 
the Times-Dispatch will ever forget. With a graceful sim- 
plicity and a modesty which added a charm to every line, Mr. 
Baker unfolded a story which moved every Southern heart. 
Most of us knew, in a general way, of Mr. Baker's 
connection with that Southern hero, John Yates Beall; 
and history told us, with substantial accuracy, the adven- 
tures of that famous guerrilla; but none knew the hair- 
breadth escapes, the daring, the fortitude and the suffering 
of Beall and his men. 

A few of Mr. Baker's friends, who know that he would 
never advertise his own valor, decided after the articles had 
been printed to preserve them in permanent form as a 
contribution to Southern history and asked me to add a few 
words of explanation. I feel that this is really superfluous: 
Mr. Baker's story is sufficient in itself, yet, as he leaves un- 
told as much as he tells, at least as far as he personally is 
concerned, a few words regarding the expedition in which 
Mr. Baker played a part, and a few words more regarding 
Mr. Baker himself, may not be inapropos. 



Memoirs of Service 



f(^^ 



John Yates Beall, who died a felon's death where he de- 
served a hero's grave, represented the flower of Virginia 
manhood. Born in J 839, he came of honorable stock; 
he was cultured, he was chivalrous; he had that spirit 
of genuine piety which gave to his military career all 
the ardor of a crusade. Under different circumstances, 
Beall might have lived and died a typical Virginia gentle- 
man, — wedded to the home of his fathers, serving God in his 
daily walk, dealing justly with all men, exemplifying in his 
life all these virtues which are associated, in our minds, with 
the Old Dominion of ante bellum days. Such, indeed, had 
been his purpose and such seemed the necessities of life. 
^^^len the illness of his father forced him to leave the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, at the age of twenty, he came home and began 
active Ufe as a planter. It was while here, in the storied 
valley of the Shenandoah, that he developed those charac- 
teristics which made him dear to the Southern people. 
Fiery, impetuous, an aristocrat in every nerve, he came under 
deep, spiritual conviction as a young man, and from that 
time until his death his will in all things was subjected to a 
Will Divine. To him, religion was a living, throbbing prin- 
ciple, — a principle that gave him grace to bear and to forbear, 
a principle that inspired him to lofty ideals and exalted deeds. 
His religion was like that of Jackson and like that of Jeremy 
Bentham combined. It made him inflexible in battle, 
unfaltering in peace : it gave new strength to his sabre and 
new tenderness to his heart. It became, in short, the dom- 
inating principle of his life, and fanned into flame the truest 
impulses of his heart. 

When the war began, Beall of course threw in his strength 
to the support of his native State. No other course sug- 
gested itself to him; nothing else was ever dreamed of. Yet 
it was not until he had served some time, and had been 



Memoirs of Service 5 

incapacitated for land duty, that he began that career which 
made his name a terror to the Federals. His determination 
to begin irregular warfare and to harass the enemy in every 
way possible came as the result of a cool and patriotic 
determination. He knew that in the field, or even at sea, 
where he fought with the regular forces, he was but one of 
thousands who were ready to give their blood or their lives 
for Southern independence. To die in such a way was but 
a small thing in his eyes, — a sacrifice and a service small in 
comparison with his devotion to the cause. On the other 
hand, he knew that by daring where others hesitated, by 
fighting where others felt helpless, he might give his life as 
a worthy sacrifice. Few men in the Confederacy would ad- 
mit for a moment that it was possible to capture a Federal 
gunboat on the Chesapeake with a handful of men; none 
would dare suggest that a company of intrepid spirits could 
release the famished thousands at Johnson's Island; yet 
Beall believed that these things could be done and counted 
them a proper service for his mother State. This and this 
alone is the explanation of the career upon which he entered 
in 1862. He had no other motive than that of service and 
no other incentive than that of patriotism. He was not 
blood thirsty; he was not craving notoriety; he was merely 
seeking to do the utmost to end the war and to save his State. 
When the officers of the Northern government, smarting 
under the disgrace of the defeats administered them by 
Beall, denounced him as a pirate, and put him and his as- 
sociates beyond the pale of honorable warfare, they belied 
as brave a spirit as the Confederacy produced and added 
new glory to Beall and his band. 

To protest that Beall and the men who served with him 
were pirates and not entitled to the honors of war is a sophis- 
try which history refutes in a thousand instances. Beall 



6 Memoirs of Service 

was a commissioned officer of the Confederate government; 
he was acting under orders of the Navy Department; he 
was on detached duty, as were a hundred other gallant 
officers. If this service were piracy, then Bullock and Clay 
and Morgan and Mosby and every partisan, every diplo- 
matic agent and every foreign representative of the Govern- 
ment was a pirate. 

A grateful South, which has learned to place I^ee's men on 
the monument with Lee, and Pickett's Virginians and Caro- 
linians on the same pedestal with their leader, will not forget 
that Beall's men deserve no less praise than he. If he 
planned, they executed; if he led, they followed; if he had 
honor from victory and death from defeat, they deserve no 
less honor from victory and had no less danger of death from 
defeat. If Beall had been successful in his attempt to 
release the prisoners at Johnson's Island, he would probably 
have received all the glory. Had he desired it his men might 
have been forgotten; but when he was captured in the 
Chesapeake, his men wore shackles like his own and were 
threatened with the same grim death. Every man, there- 
fore, who followed Beall deserves to be remembered, and 
among these our friend, Mr. W. W. Baker, will hold no 
small place. 

The contribution which Mr. Baker makes, in this narra- 
tive, to the history of Beall's command is of first importance, 
in that he sheds new light on an obscure chapter of Southern 
history. Little enough has been written of Beall in a general 
way, and still less of his raids in the Chesapeake. His 
published memoirs and the accounts of his trial, to which 
reference is made in the text, deal almost exclusively with 
the ill-fated raid on Lake Erie; there are few reports and no 
private memoirs of the early work of Beall's party, Mr. 
Baker, who shared in the most thrilling of these experiences, 



Memoirs of Service 7 

details the daily life of the men, characterizes Beali in sim- 
ple but powerful terms, and gives, in brief, the first and only 
adequate picture yet drawn of an expedition which deserves 
to rank with the most daring deeds of Mosby or of Morgan. 



One of the most interesting chapters in the history of the 
Confederates is that written after Appomattox. It is not 
the story of Political Reconstruction, harrowing, pathetic, 
heroic as that is; it is not the story of Industrial Transfor- 
mation, vital as that is in the life of the South today ; it is 
the story of the individual struggle men had after the war 
in earning their living, in making their way against the in- 
justice of a hostile Federal Administration, and in adjusting 
themselves, one by one, to a new and trying social order. 
Sociologists who tell this story in the future, guided by 
principles of which we now know little, will see this struggle 
and find in it much to inspire them. Most ot the men who 
came back from Appomattox and from other fields of 
sorrow were young men. All who were to have a part in 
making the South were young, for men past thirty, 
who came back from the war to contend alone with 
a hopeless labor force, a denuded country, and a biting 
poverty, seldom regained their old position and seldom were 
able to rise. The pathetic spectacle of famous Generals 
fruitlessly tilling a poor farm or following a small mercantile 
hfe is proof of this. All depended on the boys. To be 
sure, most of them had been snatched from school or from 
college, illy prepared for intellectual careers; but however 
equipped, their minds were those which must make fortunes 
for themselves and greatness for the South. How they did 
it, how they surmounted obstacles and repaired their 



8 Memoirs of Service 

broken fortunes, how they struggled to make Ufe worth 
living and home worth having, how they rose and toiled, and 
finally succeeded is no less heroic than the tale of their 
military prowess. 

Mr. Baker was one of these boys, and those of us who know 
him best see in the story of his life the secret of how many of 
his peers won not only a place for themselves in the business 
world, but new honors for Virginia and new hopes for her 
children. 

Mr. Baker went into this struggle after the war 
determined to win success. The experience of his campaign 
with Beall and the stern discipline of his prison life strength- 
ened and matured those characteristics which he had in- 
herited from a long line of worthy ancestors and gave him 
an advantage which adverse circumstances never overcame. 
Born in 1844, the son of Anne Elizabeth Howard, a daughter 
of the famous Howard family of Maryland, and of John 
Daniel Baker, Esquire, of Chesterfield County, W. W. Baker 
was descended from a family which had lived in Chester- 
field and Powhatan for five generations, and which had by its 
sterling qualities of manhood achieved a proverbial reputa- 
tion for probity and worth. All that was lasting and all 
that was ambitious in this stock asserted itself in Mr. 
Baker when he returned home after the war and took up his 
Hfe work. In business he quickly succeeded, and his popu- 
larity there soon brought him into public life. His first 
public position was that of justice of the peace, which he 
received by appointment of Governor Gilbert C. Walker. 
This was an important position in a county, situated, as 
was Chesterfield, in the midst of the Black Belt, and to its 
duties Mr. Baker gave himself without reserve. When 
his term expired he was re-elected by the people and re- 
ceived this proof of their confidence, as often and as long as 



Memoirs of Service 9 

he would accept of the post. After serving as supervisor of 
Midlothian district and as school trustee, Mr. Baker's 
friends insisted upon naming him for the House of Delegates 
in 1883 and prevailed upon him at a personal sacrifice to 
continue through the long regular and extra sessions of that 
and the succeeding troubled year. During this first term of 
service in the General Assembly of the State, Mr. 
Baker left his mark on the statute books of the Common- 
wealth. In addition to an important bill requiring the clerks 
of court to certify that bonds of special commissioners had 
been given before issuing decrees for the sale of property, 
Mr. Baker introduced and pushed to passage the first 
act ever placed on the statute books to prevent the running 
of freight trains on Sunday. This latter measure, important 
in itself, opened the way for future legislation and may truly 
be said to be at the basis of that admirable code of laws which 
gave to the Commonwealth a Christian Sabbath. 

Famil}'' and personal matters compelled Mr. Baker to 
retire from the Assembly in 1884, and it was not until 1899 
that he was again able to take his place as the representative 
of his county in that body. In the meantime, by earnest 
application to business, Mr. Baker amassed a competence, 
and, when he returned to public life, he was in a position 
to give himself more freely to the service of the State. From 
that time until the present year he has not failed of re-elec- 
tion to the General Assembly, and during all of their sessions 
his record has been one of constructive legislation. Of the 
many laws passed at the instance of Mr. Baker, perhaps the 
most important was that enacted by the General Assembly 
of 1908 reorganizing the State Board of Health. 

Realizing from the tragedies in his own family that the 
State should do something to prevent the needless loss of 
Hf e from preventable disease, Mr. Baker drafted, on broad , 



10 Memoirs of Service 

liberal lines, a bill which revolutionized health work in Vir- 
ginia and marked an epoch in the history of Southern 
hygiene. Under the provision of this act the State Board of 
Health was given $40,000 a year and was required to choose 
an executive officer and a staff of assistants to be organized 
into a State Department of Health. In addition, this 
Act required the State Board of Health to investigate cli- 
matic conditions in Virginia and to establish a Sanatorium 
for the open air treatment of tuberculosis. In pursuance 
of this Act the State Department of Health was duly or- 
ganized, with Dr. Ennion G. WiUiams, of Richmond, as 
Commissioner and was put in operation in July, 1908. By 
the time the Assembly met in 1910 the Health Department 
had won its place and justified its creation. It had carried 
out the provision of the original Act; it had estabhshed, 
equipped and had operated the Catawba Sanatorium where 
many cases of incipient tuberculosis were treated and cured 
and had gained for itself a wide field of usefulness. In 
the Assembly of 1910 Mr. Baker found himself by no means 
the sole champion of the new work and he was able to muster 
enough votes to insure not only the continuance of the State 
Board of Health, but the appropriation of a large sum 
for the enlargement of the Catawba Sanatorium and the 
passage of several epoch-making health laws. 

During the same session of Assembly, Mr. Baker fathered 
the bill giving State aid to the Industrial Home and School 
for Incorrigible Girls. This foundation met a long felt need 
in the State and gave to many unfortunate girls the means of 
escape from a life of shame and the assurance of a training 
that would fit them for honorable usefulness. The Home 
has already been opened and its friends have reason to 
believe that it will be as successful in its sphere as the Health 
Department has been in a different field. 



Memoirs of Service 11 

Mr. Baker has not been content to serve the State ex- 
clusively as a legislator. Indeed his work as an administra- 
tor has been no less successful, especially in his conduct of 
Virginia's interests in the great Industrial Expositions of 
recent years. Appointed Commissioner for Chesterfield 
to the Richmond Expositions of 1888, 1889 and 1890, he 
early won reputation as an expert in such matters and was 
appointed Commissioner for Virginia to the St. Louis Expo- 
sition of 1904. Much of the fame won by Virginia's 
exhibit at that time was due to Mr. Baker's unselfish and 
patriotic services. So great was his success in this work, 
that when the General Assembly appropriated a large sum 
for the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, Mr. Baker, without a 
dissenting voice, was named one of the commission entrusted 
with the expenditure, and was most active in discharging his 
duties. In the same way, his administrative ability led 
the Assembly to appoint him on all of the three committees 
of recent years which have been entrusted with the largest 
State building contracts, — the enlargement of the State 
Penitentiary, the remodeling of the Capitol and the addition 
of a new wing to the State Library building. 

Nor have Mr. Baker's public services ended here. Noth- 
ing that has concerned the interests of the State has been 
foreign to him. Prominent in the councils of the Baptist 
Church, he has been frequently the moderator of the Middle 
District Association, and has been a Trustee of Richmond 
College for many years. He is also President of the Vir- 
ginia Anti-Tuberculosis Association and occupies many 
other places of importance in charitable and philanthropic 
organizations. In a word, his entire career has been a credit 
to his splendid ancestry and another proof that those who 
passed through the discipline of the war between the States 



12 Memoirs of Service 

did not fall under the discipline of daily life, but won success 
in peace as they had attained honor in battle. 



Only a word need be added regarding the method pursued 
in publishing this narrative. Mr. Baker's account is sub- 
stantially the same as that originally published in The 
Times-Dispatch, with only a few typographical and grammat- 
ical corrections; the appendices are those selected by him 
and verified by the editor from the Official Records of the 
War of the Rebellion. These have been arranged and sup- 
plied by the editor with a few footnotes and references 
which may be helpful to anyone desiring to learn more of the 

''Terror of the Chesapeake." 

D. S. F. 



CONTENTS 



Page. 

Chapter I. The Beginning of Our Expedition .... 15 

Chapter II. The Capture of the Alliance 19 

Chapter III. A Very Close Shave 24 

Chapter IV. Cornered and Captured 29 

Chapter V. In Federal Shackles 33 

Chapter VI. Edmondson's Escape 37 

Chapter VII. Fort Monroe and Point Lookout 41 

Chapter VIII. The Evacuation and Appomattox .... 45 

Chapter IX. The End of Captain Beall 47 

Appendices 52 



CHAPTER I. 
THE BEGINNING OF OUR EXPEDITION. 

I was born in Chesterfield county, Va., October 20, 1844, 
and attended a school taught by Rev. D. B. Winfree for 
three years. When ten years old I lost my mother. After 
marrying again, my father moved to Danville, Va. In- 
stead of attending school as he desired, I persuaded him to 
allow me to be apprenticed to Messrs. Abner Anderson and 
L. M. Shumaker, editors of the Danville Register, to learn 
the printing business. My father becoming dissatisfied with 
Danville, removed to Dobson, N. C, when I obtained 
consent to be transferred to ^lessrs. Boner & Allspaugh, of 
the Western Sentinel, of Winston, N. C. After two years, 
when my father again removed to Richmond, Va., I came to 
the Richmond Enquirer, then owned by Tyler and Allegre , 
and there finished the required five years as apprentice 
at the printing business. 

While serving as apprentice, after my work was done in 
the composing room, I generally ''loafed" and kept busy 
reading in the editorial room, in which there was an excellent 
library. Whenever the editors, John Mitchell and George 
C. Stedman, wanted any errand run, I was always on hand 
to serve them, and hence became very intimate with both. 
In return they gave me all the assistance asked in my reading, 
of which I was very fond. In fact, Mr. Stedman appeared 
as solicitous of my welfare as if I had been his son, and was 
always anxious to aid me in any way that presented itself 
to him. I obtained permission from Mr. Allegre, and 
Served for a time in Capt. Cyrus Bossieux's company, 
Twenty-fifth Virginia Battahon, but my services were need- 
ed on the Enquirer, and I was again assigned to them. 

Seeing all my young friends joining the army, I became 



16 Memoirs of Service 

anxious to again become a soldier, and talked the matter 
over with Mr. Stedman, who stated to me that he was also 
contemplating leaving the Enquirer and joining some arm 
of the service, and requested me not to take any action until 
he had determined what to do, as he wanted me to go with him. 

It was during the summer of 1863 that Mr. Stedman 
stated to me that he had about arranged to join in an en- 
terprise and wanted me to go with him. This I at once 
consented to do, after securing permission from Mr. Allegre. 

The only information I secured from Mr. Stedman was 
that we would enlist in the volunteer Confederate Navy, 
and that our ultimate destination would be the China seas, 
as it was proposed by the commanding officer to at once 
proceed to capture a good sea-worthy gunboat from the 
Federals somewhere on the Chesapeake or Atlantic, and to 
proceed as soon as possible to the South Atlantic for the 
purpose of intercepting shipping from China to the United 
States. It was about August 1, 1863, that Mr. Stedman 
informed me that he was ready for us to join the new ex- 
pedition. I was then introduced to Acting Master John 
Y. Beall and Acting Master Edward McGuire. We called 
them Captain Beall and Lieutenant McGuire. and they were 
so denominated ever after. Mr. Stedman and myseK en- 
listed in their command, which was composed of Captain 
John Y. Beall, Lieutenant Edward McGuire, Sailing Masters 
George C. Stedman, of the Richmond Enquirer, McFarland, 
of the Richmond Whig, Edmondson, of Maryland and 
Privates Wilhe Beall, Robert Annan, E. Mell Stratton, of 
Richmond, Fitzgerald of Norfolk, Severn Churn and 
Thomas, Accomac county; Crouch, Etter, Rankin, three 
other expert sailors, whose names I have forgotten, and 
myself. We made up what was commonly known during 
the war as "Beall's Party." 



Memoirs of Service 17 

We left Richmond on the York River Raiboad about 
September 1, 1863, leaving the train at Tunstall's station, 
and thence via Piping Tree Ferry to Mathews Courthouse. 
After reaching that point, Captain Beall arranged with a 
number of the citizens to entertain his command while in 
Mathews. We were treated as members of the families by 
Messrs. Sands Smith, Thomas Smith, Colonel Tabb, and 
Messrs. Ransom and Brooks. In fact, all the citizens in 
the neighborhood of Horn Harbor and Winter Harbor were 
as hospitable as was possible to be, and we were always cor- 
dially welcomed to their homes. Nor did we fully realize the 
vengeance that would be visited upon them by the Federals 
as soon as it became known that they were friendly to the 
''notorious Beall and his party of pirates," as Captain Beall 
was known and named by the Yankees after the incidents 
to be recorded were known by them. 

On September 18 Captain Beall again set out from Horn 
Harbor, Mathews county. His party numbered eighteen, 
and was divided, as near as I remember, in our two gallant 
little lifeboats, both of which were fitted with masts, sails 
and a full supply of oars. One was painted white and named 
"The Swan," and the other black, and named "The Raven." 
Captain Beall commanded "The Swan," and with him were 
McFarland, Edmondson, WiUie Beall, Robert Annan, Etter, 
Thomas, Sweeney and one other whom I have forgotten. 
Lieut. Ed. McGuire commanded "The Raven," and with 
him were Geo. C. Stedman, E. Mell Stratton, Severn Churn, 
Crouch, Rankin, W. W. Baker, Fitzgerald and another, 
whose name I cannot now recall. 

We sailed across the Chesapeake during the night of the 
18th and reached Devil's Ditch, Northampton county, about 
the break of day on the 19th, passing and avoiding many 
vessels and steamers on the trip. After resting all day we 



18 Memoirs of Service 

again set sail the night of the 19th, and proceeded to Rac- 
coon Island, near Cape Charles. We passed within about 
600 yards of Smith's Island lighthouse about 9 o'clock 
the next morning, beautiful bright day. Captain Beall 
had visited the island about three weeks before, and 
after destroying the fixtm-es and cutting the cable from 
Fort Monroe to Washington, had brought away to Richmond 
twenty-five barrels of the best sperm oil, which was very 
valuable to the government at that time. 

In consequence of this raid, the Yankees had placed a 
battery of three guns on the island to defend it against any 
further raids on the part of Captain Beall. This we did not 
know at the time, and had it not been that Captain Beall 
had other work laid out, he would again have paid the 
lighthouse a visit. W^e were afterwards informed by citizens 
who were on the island at the time we passed that they 
discussed the probability of an attack from us, and had 
about arrived at the conclusion that they would evacuate 
the island on account of our apparent overwhelming force. 
They thought the eighteen of us were about 100. And ever 
after, when mentioned in the reports sent to Washington, 
although sometimes there were not more than sixteen of us 
with Captain Beall, and never over eighteen, it was made to 
appear that his force consisted of from 40 to 100 men. 

After passing Smith's Island we sailed up the inner chan- 
nel and captm'ed the Yankee sloop Mary Anne and two 
fishing sloops. Being a httle "fish hungry," Captain Beall 
allowed us to take as much fishing tackle as we wanted, and 
all of us spent the day fishing in the sand shoals, near Cobb's 
Island. After catching as many as we could manage, we 
returned to the Mary Anne and enjoyed one of the most 
elaborate fish suppers that I ever remember. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CAPTURE OF THE ALLIANCE. 

For the next two days and nights we sailed up the At- 
lantic, and about night of September 21 it began to blow 
almost a gale and rained in torrents. About 8 o'clock at 
night we sighted, lying at anchor in Wachapreague Inlet, 
a large vessel, schooner rigged, which Captain Beall at once 
gave orders to capture. Captain Beall arranged to board 
the vessel on the port side and directed Lieutenant McGuire 
to board on the starboard side. Lieutenant McGuire was 
standing in the bow of the boat, and as there was a severe 
wind blowing us towards the vessel and a heavy sea running 
at the time, and as dark as pitch, our boat. The Raven, was 
dashed against the side of the vessel with such force as to 
smash our tiller, and Lieutenant McGuire was thrown head- 
long into the sea. He regained the boat, which was carried' 
by the rapid current then running around to the bow of the 
vessel, and thrown against the Swan, to which we made fast, 
and thus both Captain Beall and Lieutenant McGuire, with 
their men, boarded the vessel from the port side. The night 
was so dark and stormy that not a soul was found on deck, 
and Captain Beall directed Lieutenant McGuire and his 
crew to tackle the forecastle, and Captain Beall, with his 
crew, went aft to the cabins. 

Up to this time we had no idea of the character of the 
vessel, not knowing whether it was a war or merchant vessel. 
It proved to be the handsome merchant schooner Alliance, 
Captain David Ireland, Staten Island, N. Y., bound from 
Philadelphia to Port Royal, S. C, laden with sutlers' 
stores to the value of $18,000 gold. But Uttle resistance 



20 Memoirs of Service 

was made, and no one was injured. After taking charge of 
the ship Captain Beall went below and directed that samples 
of everything be brought on deck, and we then had a veri- 
table feast of good things, as there appeared to be everything 
to eat, drink, smoke and wear aboard. 

As the equinox continued all hands remained aboard the 
Alliance, and both anchors were cast to keep her steady. 
That night, however, we again took to the Raven and Swan, 
after leaving a guard aboard the Alliance, and captured three 
more vessels — the Houseman, Samuel Pear sail, and a third 
called the Alexander. After stripping them of all val- 
uables, particularly their nautical instruments, of which 
the Confederacy was badly in need, we scuttled them and 
ran them out into the Atlantic. On September 24 all hands 
were brought aboard the Alliance, which Captain Beall 
decided he would try and save by running into the Chesa- 
peake and into some of the rivers that were not too strictly 
guarded by the Yankee gunboats. The morning of the 24th 
was beautiful and sunshiny, and Captain Beall called 
Captain Ireland on deck and asked him if he was thoroughly 
acquainted with the channel from the inlet into the Atlantic. 
Captain Ireland with pride stated that he was well ac- 
quainted with every nook and corner of this coast. 

Captain Beall repHed: ''Very well. Captain Ireland; this 
is a fine vessel with a most valuable cargo, of which our 
people in the South are sadly in need, therefore your crew 
will be placed under your command, and you will please run 
us as soon as possible out into Atlantic. I shall stand by 
you, and if you should allow us to run aground I shall be 
under the disagreeable necessity of shooting you. I am 
sure, however, that you reahze the gravity of the situation 
and will not play us false." Captain Ireland, who was a 
brave man, and equal to any emergency, then called his 



Memoirs of Service 21 

crew aft and soon had every sail set, and in a short time we 
were bowling along in the Atlantic. 

When we reached Cobb's Island Captain Beall sent ashore 
and secured a pilot who was well acquainted with the bay, 
and particularly the Pianketank River, into which he had 
by this time determined to run the Alliance. All of the 
prisoners who would agree not to give information as to our 
whereabouts for three days were paroled, and those who 
refused, among the number Captain Ireland, his mate, 
purser and about ten others, were, after we reached Cape 
Charles, placed aboard the Raven and Swan. I was aboard 
the Raven with Lieutenant McGuire and Mr. Stedman as 
guard, and the Swan was placed in charge of Edmondson 
with two guards and the prisoners placed in our boats. 

We sailed along with the Alliance until we reached Cheery- 
stone Lighthouse, when we headed for Horn Harbor, and 
the Alliance, under Captain Beall, for the Pianketank River, 
Lieutenant McGuire at the tiller and Mr. Stedman and my- 
self in the stern, with the prisoners in front. 

During the night there came on a heavy blow, with waves 
running so high that at times our little craft was almost 
upon beam ends, and the heavy caps seas frequently half- 
filled her. When about half way across the Chesapeake 
the winds and waves became so high that Lieutenant Mc- 
Guire told us, prisoners and all, that if the wind rose any 
higher that we could not possibly keep our boat afloat, and 
himself divested himself of his heavy boots that he might be 
as little encumbered as possible. 

We kept the Raven and Swan as close together as possible 
in the event of either being swamped, but with the almost 
superhuman work of Captain Ireland and the other prisoners 
constantly bailing, we kept afloat, and about sunrise sailed 
into Horn Harbor. Captain Ireland remarked afterwards 



22 Memoirs of Service 

that he had been on the sea for a number of years, but that 
trip was about the closest call he had ever had, and that a 
little more wind and none of us would have ever seen the 
land again.* 

Just here it might not be amiss to mention an incident 
which occurred while on the Alliance. After Captain Beall 
had brought upon deck everything that we needed either in 
eatables or clothing, and given each of us all we wanted, he 
stated to us that he did not wish anything to be disturbed 
below decks, and that if we needed anything to ask him and 
he would see that we were supphed. He had always been 
so kind and gentle in his manner to each of us, frequently 
taking our places at the oars and cooking when we appeared 
tired, that none of us realized how stern he could be when his 
orders were disobeyed. But no sooner than we were allowed 
to go below than a spirit of curiosity seemed to get the best 
of five or six of us, and we commenced to break open boxes 
of cigars, trying to get something better than those we had 
been served with. Captain Beall heard of it and summoned 
us on deck, and stated that he had learned that his orders 
had been disobeyed, and directed that we be hned up against 
the rail of the vessel and searched, stating that if any evi- 
dence appeared that cigars or other things was found upon 
our person that he intended to shoot the man upon w^hom they 
were found. I unfortunately had my pockets filled with the 
best Havanas, as did several of the others. Realizing that 
we were in a tight place, we crowded back to the rail and 
as close together as we could get, and with our hands behind 
us emptied every pocket into the sea. I have thought that 
Captain Beall knew what we were doing, although he could 
not see our hands at work. At any rate when the search 



*See Report of Guert Gansevoort, captain, U. S. N., to Maj. Gen. J. G- 
Foster, Sept. 28, 1863, Appendix I, p. 53. 



Memoirs of Service 23 

was made we all were found to be innocent, and Captain 
Beall dismissed us with a fatherly caution not to again dis- 
obey him, and I can say that I am sure that in all the months 
after he never found real cause to complain. 



CHAPTER III. 
A VERY CLOSE SHAVE. 

After reaching Mathews we carried the prisoners up to a 
church on the road not far east of Mathews Courthouse. 
We had been there but a short time before we heard cannon 
booming over on the Pianketank River, and in a few hours 
Captain Beall appeared with the other men and stated that 
as they entered the mouth of the river, they were chased by 
a Federal gunboat, and that the pilot becoming confused as 
to the channel, ran the Alliance aground. The gunboat 
coming as near as she could get continued shelling them, 
while they were loading as much of the cargo as was possible 
and were setting fire to the ship and pulUng for the shore. 
Captain Beall saved several wagon loads of the cargo, along 
with all the nautical instruments, which along with the 
prisoners, we carried overland to Richmond. On reaching 
Richmond, Mell Stratton resigned, and some one else — I 
have forgotten the name — enlisted in his stead. 

After about ten days' rest we again set out to Mathews, 
having left our little lifeboats hidden in Horn Harbor, near 
Mr. Sand Smith's. We remained in Mathews several days, 
arranging for an extended raid, in which Captain Beall 
hoped to captiure a seaworthy gunboat, as he had been in- 
formed where one such sometimes stopped to secure supplies. 

Captain Beall' s operations now began to attract attention, 
and called down heavy denunciations upon him in the North, 
and while we were arranging for our next raid Brigadier- 
General Wister was sent down to Mathews and neighboring 



Memoirs of Service 25 

counties for the special purpose of capturing Captain Beall 
and his party. General Wister's force for this purpose, I 
was informed, consisted of one regiment of negro infantry, 
two of white cavalry and one battalion of artillery, also 
three gunboats in North River, three in East River and two 
in the Piankatank River. 

Information reached Captain Beall of the approach of 
this overwhelming land force. Edmondson was sent up to 
the field in front of Colonel Tabb's home to ascertain if the 
report was true. While waiting he fell asleep and narrowly 
escaped being captured, leaving his coat, upon which he had 
lain down to rest. Captain Beall then arranged for a hur- 
ried departure on his boats. After running out a short 
distance he ascertained that it would be impossible to pass 
the gunboats, which were on the lookout on the water, there- 
fore he at once ordered the Raven and Swan to be run up to 
Mr. Sand Smith's, at the extreme end of Horn Harbor and 
near Mr. Smith's lawn. We all set to work with shovels and 
filled both boats with sand and sunk them. 

While we were at this work, information was brought that 
the Yankees were resting in force in front of Colonel Tabb's, 
and that pickets were then being stationed at Mr. Thomas 
Smith's gate, and all ilong the roads between the Mobjack 
Bay and the Piankatank River, in three impenetrable lines. 
We finished filling and sinking the two boats about sunset, 
and were then told by Captain Beall that we would "have 
to get out of there" that night. Captain Beall then coolly 
proceeded to the home of Thomas Smith, about one-half 
mile distant, and accepted an invitation extended the whole 
party by Miss Lizzie Smith, the daughter of Thos. Smith, 
to come in and partake of supper that she had prepared for 
the whole party, although she knew that at the time the 



26 Memoirs of Service 

Yankee pickets were stationed at her father's outer gate 
about one-fourth of a mile distant. 

I remember that a part of the supper consisted of sweet 
potatoes, and shall never forget how hard they were to 
swallow, as I thought of those Yankees at the gate. 
After we had partaken of a hearty supper, and what to me 
appeared an awfully leisurely one, Captain Beall asked 
McFarland, of the Richmond Whig — who had seen service 
as an Indian scout, and who had a tread as soft as a kitten 
— if he thought he could locate all the different pickets. 
McFarland assured him he could. We were then ordered to 
follow Indian file in the footsteps of McFarland, and not to 
whisper or make the slightest noise. McFarland would go 
a distance in front and ascertain where the pickets w^ere 
located, and return, and we would follow after him, crossing 
the picket Unes, which were supposed to be about 100 yards 
apart. 

Just after we had crossed the first line on the road from 
Colonel Tabb's to Thomas Smith's, Edmondson insisted that 
he be allowed to crawl up into the field where the main 
force of the Yankees was encamped, and get the coat that 
he had left that afternoon. 

Captain Beall consenting, we all laid down about five feet 
from the road, by the side of a ditch, and in a minute or two 
a Yankee relief guard came tramping by. I thought that 
my heart would punch a hole in the ground, it beat so fiercely 
as the Yankees moved up so quietly that it was impossible 
for us to move without being seen by them. We had to 
stay there and quietly hope that they would not see us. 
I am very glad to record they apparently did not. In 
a short time Edmondson returned with his coat, and we 
resumed our silent march, with McFarland always in front 
locating the line of pickets. Under his skillful leadership 



Memoirs of Service 27 

we successfully passed through all three lines of pickets, and 
by sunrise were securely resting in Dragon Swamp. 

It now becomes my painful privilege to record one of the 
saddest events of my connection with the service under 
Captain Beall. After remaining for two or three days in 
Dragon Swamp, Captain Beall learned that the large force 
of infantry, cavalry, artillery and gunboats had returned to 
Fort Monroe and that the coast was again clear. We then 
learned that General Wister had made a thorough search for 
us the morning after our departm-e, and was deeply chagrined 
because of the failure of his expedition and was greatly 
incensed against the citizens because they had not aided him. 

The morning after we left a squadron of cavalry rode rap- 
idly down into Sands Smith's yard and in some way in- 
sulted Mr. Smith, who was a man to whom fear was un- 
known. Mr. Smith was so enraged at what was said to 
him that he ran into the house and secured his double-bar- 
reled shotgun and shot dead the first man that had insulted 
him, and was upon the point of pulling another from his 
saddle when the others of the squadron rode up and felled 
him with their sabres. Mr. Smith was injured but slightly, 
and was then bound. The Yankees pulled his buggy out of 
the carriage house, tied Mr. Smith to the seat behind the 
buggy (the seat then used to carry trunks upon), and told 
him that they would reserve punishment until he could be 
taken before the whole command. There were seven or 
eight daughters of Mr. Smith then in the dwelling and with 
tears they begged to bid farewell to their old father, but 
were ruthlessly pushed aside and not allowed to speak to 
him. 

Mr. Smith was then taken up between Colonel Tabb's 
and Mathews Courthouse and there hung upon a tree on 
the roadside, and while still hanging his body was riddled 



28 Memoirs of Service 

with bullets. When Captain Beall heard of it the next day 
he was overwhelmed with grief, and I am sure that if he had 
ever caught the men connected with that raid they would 
have suffered as much or more, if possible, than our old friend 
and hero, Sands Smith. 



CHAPTER IV. 
CORNERED AND CAPTURED. 

After this tragedy Captain Beall was more anxious than 
ever to do all the injury that was possible to the Federals, 
and at once began preparations to capture the gunboats, on 
which he hoped to make the Yankees feel the force of his 
anger at the murder of Sands Smith. It was about Novem- 
ber 10th that Captain Beall and Lieutenant McGuire set 
out with our party and again crossed the Chesapeake Bay in 
the Raven and Swan. We first captured a schooner, in 
which Captain Beall proposed to conceal his men until 
night, when he planned to capture a gunboat lying at anchor 
near Chesconnessex, Accomac county. After consultation 
with his advisers, Captain Beall, thinking that our boats 
which were the best ships' tenders and were so much larger 
and handsomer than those used as tenders for schooners, 
might attract notice, determined to have them hidden in some 
of the nearby coves, and ordered Edmondson to take a crew 
and carry them into some cove out of sight and then to come 
to the schooner at 8 o'clock the next night. Edmondson took 
command of them, and with Fitzgerald, Thomas, Crouch, 
Churn and myself, sailed away from the schooner and into 
what appeared in the dark a most excellent hiding place. 
Edmondson and all the others except Fitzgerald and myself 
left the boats and went over into the island and laid down to 
sleep. 

Fitzgerald and myself remained in the boats and were 
soon fast alseep. The next morning when we awakened 
the sun was shining brightly, and we could see that a great 
mistake had been made as to our being hidden. For, while 



30 Memoirs of Service 

it had appeared to have been a most secluded spot in the 
night, we soon found that if any one were to sail by the 
mouth of the inlet our boats could be seen. However, Ed- 
mondson, who was in command, thought that there would 
be still greater danger of our capture if we attempted to go 
into any other inlet. He therefore directed Fitzgerald and 
myself to remain in the boats, and he himself and the rest 
of the party again crept over into the island, which was 
densely covered with sage brush, and fell asleep. 

About 12 o'clock a fisherman passing by the mouth of the j 
inlet sailed in and up to our boats and inquired who we were. 
I do not remember whether it was Fitzgerald or myself that 
told him that we were with a party from Baltimore who had 
run down on a hunting trip, and were resting until the tid *' 
rose, when we expected to sail up the bay and spend the nigh f 
near the gunboat. We were afraid to shoot the fellow, aq 
any firing would have attracted many of the hundreds of; 
fishing smacks that appeared to be near the mouth of the 
inlet, and we hoped that he would be satisfied with our! 
statement, as he told us he was fishing in one of the many 
smacks that lay outside. If he had come near enough we couldi 
have pulled him into our boat and kept him, but he kept 
some distance away while talking to us. He wished us all 
luck on our hunting trip and sailed out of the inlet. W<i! 
saw him sail in the direction of the fishing smacks and con- 
cluded that we had seen the last of him and again laid down 
in the boat. It subsequently transpired that after sailing . 
to the fishing smack he then sailed for the gunboat we ha'/ ; 
hoped to capture — one that was lying at a wharf about tw 
miles north of us. 

At any rate, on awakening at 5 o'clock, Fitzgerald sa\? 
two boats coming towards the mouth of the inlet, and in t, 
few minutes there appeared right upon us two large barges c 



Memoirs of Service 31 

well-armed Yankees with guns cocked and ready to fire upon 
us. I shall never forget that Fitzgerald turned to me and 
said: "Baker, this is a hot thing, ain't it?" at which time the 
Yankee barge was alongside. The lieutenant in command 
called out, "Surrender," and asked what command we 
belonged to. Either Fitzgerald or myself, I have forgotten 
which, stated to him that we were members of Captain 
Beall's command. The Yankees then jumped to the island, 
and commenced firing at random. They hoped, of course, to 
find the others, who made a desperate effort to run as soon 
as they were awakened by the shots. All were caught, 
however, in a short time, and we were then carried by this 
force, composed of about thirty officers and men, to the 
gunboat, the Swan and Raven being towed behind. 

Captain Beall could have escaped, but waited so long to 
see what had become of the detachment sent out to hidcthe 
boats that he was surrounded and captured. When we 
reached the gunboats, we were told that we should be treated 
as pirates, and that we would be lodged in jail to be tried as 
such at once. After reaching the gunboat, I was terribly 
hungry, not having eaten anything since morning, and seeing 
a small boat moored by the side of the gunboat, I walked 
up to the lieutenant in command and said: "Lieutenant, I 
am nearly starved; I wish you would let me get over into that 
boat and get some oysters." He appeared at first to be 
terribly angry, but in a moment he turned to me and said, 
"All right, get over there, you Httle rascal, and help your- 
self." In a short time, w^e were taken ashore and marched 
to Drummondtown jail and remained there over night. 
The next day we were taken on the gunboat and went up 
the bay.* 



♦For Federal Reports of the capture of Beall and his men, see Appendix 
II., pp. 55-57. 



32 Memoirs of Service 

Captain Beall and party were all placed in a large cabin 
on the main deck. There was a large door that opened out 
upon the forward deck, at which were posted two sentinels, 
and in front on deck was a stack of muskets, which appeared 
to belong to the relief guard. Seeing this, Captain Beall 
quietly told all the officers and men that if they would at a 
certain signal jump upon the two sentinels at the door and 
take their muskets that he could easily reach the stack of 
muskets before the balance of the guard could be under 
arms. I think that Mr. Stedman and Lieutenant McGuire 
agreed with Captain Beall that this could be done; but there 
were others who insisted that it was entirely too hazardous, 
as we had no idea how many men were on the upper deck. 

Captain Beall was terribly enraged when a majority of 
the party refused to join him, and did not hesitate to tell 
us, his teeth gritting, that we were a set of dastardly cow- 
ards. It was but a short time, however, before he apologized, 
especially after he found out that the conditions appearing 
so favorable were simply a trap set, in the hope that he would 
do just what he suggested. There was a full company of in- 
fantry on the upper deck, whose men were waiting for us to 
rush out that they might shoot down every man and thereby 
have done with Captain Beall and his party without any 
trouble of trial. 



CHAPTER V. 
IN FEDERAL SHACKLES. 

We were landed at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, at night, and 
next day were carried to a building in which was located the 
provost marshal's office. This building had been used at one 
time as a stable, but had been converted into a prison, in 
which were confined deserters from the Federal army. The 
first day we were taken into the garret story, and were 
treated very kindly. The next day we were taken to the 
provost marshal's office and there duly registered. As we 
were being carried back into our upstairs quarters, some 
fellow of the many Yankee deserters — who were being held 
in the yard which had been built around our prison, and who 
naturally lined up as far as the guard would allow when we 
came out of the provost marshal's office — slapped me in a 
famihar manner on the back and greeted me effusively. I 
then noticed that each one of us received a slap, and that the 
hand had been chalked. 

After being in our quarters a few minutes, I was called 
by a Yankee sergeant, and told that I would have to be 
initiated into the mysteries of the prison. As I came down 
with him he said, "Don't make any resistance, or they will 
go through you and take that ring off, but if you do not resist 
they will have no excuse to rob you." I found, on reaching 
the ground, about twenty-five men around and holding a 
blanket, into which I was told to jump. This I did at once, 
and with a hip and hurrah, I was three time pitched up as 
high (I thought) as a church steeple. Some of our men 



34 Memoirs of Service 

resisted and were set on and robbed of all their little store of 
money and other valuables. 

An incident happened at this time which, while it gave 
me much pleasure, has always been an unknown puzzle. 
The second day after arriving at the fort, the sergeant of 
the guard came into our room and called ''W. W. Baker." 
I answered, " Here," and was given a large willow basket, 
which contained all kinds of fruits, cakes, jellies and tobacco, 
both chewing and smoking. This, he remarked, has just 
been brought to the fort by a lady. The card had been 
torn off, and to this day I have never been able to learn the 
name of my benefactor, to whom I so much desired to make 
my grateful acknowledgments, for the basket contained a 
royal feast for us, which the whole party enjoyed. I learned 
that other baskets were sent to me, but General Lockwood 
would not permit them to be sent into the fort. 

On the next day the sergeant came into our room and 
called out: "Here, you pirates; all of you are wanted down 
in the provost marshal's office." 

On reaching the office we were lined up and our names 
called, and we were told that General Lockwood had directed 
him to place us in irons and in solitary confinement.* 
Captain Beall protested vigorously, and used some very 
plain language in denunciation of the provost marshal and 
his "cohorts," but the provost marshal did not resent what 
was said, and only repHed that he was very sorry that this 
disagreeable duty had been imposed upon him, but that 
Captain Beall knew that as a subordinate officer he was 
compelled to carry out General Lockwood's orders. 

Captain Beall and Lieutenant McGuire were shackled 
with irons on both ankles, as were all the rest, except Crouch, 

*Genl. Lockwood acted under orders of Maj.-Genl. Schenck, commanding 
at Baltimore. See the first of this order, Appendix III., p. 59. 



Memoiks op Service 35 

Thomas and myself, and, as We three had on heavy boots, 
no shackles could be found large enough to lock over our 
boots. Hence we were told to stand a«de until all the rest 
were shackled. I was congratulating myself that we would 
be permitted to go without any irons, when the officer m 
charge said ; "Sergeant, take these three men up to the black- 
smith shop and have a ball and chain riveted upon each. 

On reaching the yard the sergeant turned to me and said: 
"Take up that ball and chain and come on," pointmg to a 
sixty-pound cannon ball to which a two-foot chain was 
attached. I shouldered it, and by the time I reached the 
blacksmith shop I was nearly broken down. When the ser- 
geant was not looking I slipped it under the work bench, and 
seeing one that weighed only about twenty-five pounds with 
a six-foot chain to it, I pulled that out and sat on it. 

Crouch was first ironed with a forty-pound ball, and then 
the blacksmith turned to me, and I said *» l^™;^* ^ 
best smile. "Put this one on me." He replied, "Well, as 
you appear to be the smallest of the lot I will give you this. 
He then pulled out the big ball with short chain, and 
riveted it on Thomas, who, ever after, had to put a leather 
string in the links of chain and drag it along on the floor, 
while I could sling mine across my shoulder and walk with- 

out any trouble. ^ , 

We were then taken back to the building from whence «e 
came and put in a room on the ground floor, in wh^h were 
stalls for horses. Two sentinels were placed at the one door 
leading out. In this room were confined about *» Yankee 
deserters, who were undergoing pumshment m n-ons for 
derttn. Thebuildingwasinclosedbyahighboarden^^^^ 
with about an acre of land as a yard, into which, during the 
lay, the Yankees who had been caught in Baltimore without 
Lve of absence were daily brought and kept until forwarded 



36 Memoirs of Service 

to their commands. Captain Beall, Lieutenant McGuire, 
Stedman and McFarland were confined in the attic above 
us. After being in irons a few days, we noticed that Edmond- 
son was taken lessons from one of the Yankee deserters how 
to make a wooden key to unlock the shackles, and it was not 
long before all who were in shackles could take them off at 
night, and the next morning, before the sergeant came in to 
inspect, would have them on again. But we who had our 
chains riveted on had to keep ours on, as there was no way 
to get them off and on again. 



CHAPTER VI. 
EDMONDSON'S ESCAPE. 

After about ten days Edmondson, who was a stranger 
to fear, determined to escape and go to Richmond and in- 
form the Confederate government of om- treatment. 

He had noticed that several of the Yankees in the yard 
had been permitted by the sentinel at the door to come in 
and converse with their friends who were in irons under- 
going punishment for desertion. When the time came we 
noticed that all those who were daily kept in the yard were 
allowed to go out again and were carried into another building 
to be kept for the night. Without making known his in- 
tention to any one but Crouch, Just as the guard was taking 
the outside Yankees from the yard and into the other 
building for the night, Edmondson, dressed as a citizen, 
rushed up to the two guards at the door and said in a cool 
manner, 'Well, let me out." 

They replied, "Who are you?" and he answered, "I am 
a member of the Twenty-seventh New York, and you let me 
in a while ago to see one of my regiment who is confined in 
here in irons, and if you don't let me out in a hurry I will 
report you to the provost marshal for letting me in." Upon 
this they pushed him out in the yard, saying to him, "Don't 
you come in here again." 

Edmondson was then carried to another building which was 
simply guarded on the outside. While the Yankees were 
having a high old time singing and dancing, he jumped out 
of the window to the ground unseen by the guards who were 
enjoying the fun the men were having on the inside. He then 
crawled down toward the Baltimore Bay, expecting to swim 



38 Memoirs of Service 

over the bay into Canton, but just as he was near the water, 
he was discovered by a sentinel and hailed, ''Who comes 
there?" 

As the night was very dark he commenced to root and 
grunt hke a hog, and backed again out of sight of the sentinel, 
who thought he was one of the many hogs that were then 
kept in the fort. Edmondson then crawled on hands and 
knees towards the wall of the fort, and noticed that the senti- 
nels on top of the wall would walk towards each other and, 
after a word, would then turn back to back and march to the 
end of their respective beats. When he saw them leave each 
other, he made a jump, caught the top of the wall, sprang 
over and rapidly made his way into Baltimore, 

Just as he reached the city — it was Sunday night — a large 
crowd of people were coming out of one of the churches, and 
he mingled with the crowd until he was enabled to get 
through the most densely populated part of the city. He 
then took the road to Frederick, his first stop, where he 
secured food, and, resting for a day, he crossed the Poto- 
mac, and got to Richmond without any particular trouble. 

He reported to the Navy Department that Captain Beall 
and party were held in irons in Fort McHenry, to be treated 
as pirates. The next morning after Edmondson' s escape, 
the sergeant came in about 9 o'clock to inspect and call 
the roll. In calling the roll, when he reached the name ''G. 
Edmondson," I answered "Here," and the sergeant, looking 
over to where I stood, and not having seen Edmondson, he 
called "G. Edmondson," looking me full in the face. I did 
not answer the second time, and then there was a royal row. 

We were all summoned to the provost marshal's office 
and questioned as to the escape, and all answered except 
Crouch and another member of our party whose name I have 
forgotten. Both of these would not answer, were bucked and 



Memoirs of Service 39 

gagged and punished in the most cruel manner to make them 
tell of the manner of his escape, but as they could not or 
would not, they were again returned to our prison. When 
General Lockwood learned of Edmondson's escape he ordered 
us to be confined in the small cell built in the wall of the 
inside fort. This had only contained one door, and, I think, 
one window. Captain Beall, Lieutenant McGuire, Stedman 
and McFarland were also brought in with us. The room 
was so small that we were packed in like sardines in a box. 
It was then that we learned that Lieutenant McGuire had 
made an attempt to escape at the same time by bribing 
the sentinel who guarded his door. He gave the sentinel $10 
in green backs and a silver watch, but as he walked down 
the steps to what he thought a slight chance for liberty, he 
was met by a corporal and live men with fixed bayonets 
and marched back into his quarters and again ironed. 

^Vhen we were all put in the cell together and our irons were 
examined, all of us realized that escape was then impossible, 
and soon began to feel satisfied and at home. 

We were treated with the utmost courtesy by the officers 
of the fort, who often spoke regretfully of our being shot or 
hung. They manifested a degree of sorrow for us which we 
greatly appreciated, and supphed us with an abundance of 
the best food. We never had anything left over, for as 
soon as all had eaten we would put the balance in the stove 
and burn it, for fear that they would curtail our rations. 
While we were all in this cell. General Lockwood paid us a 
visit, accompanied by his brilliant staff, and gave Captain 
Beall a lecture, saying "that he would soon have a court 
convened and try you and your band of pirates." 

Captain Beall rephed in a most dignified manner that he 
was satisfied that the Confederate Government was fully 
equal to protecting our rights, and did not desire any favors 



40 Memoirs of Service 

from the Yankee government. After we had been in irons 
for about forty days, Lieutenant Starr, who was a regular 
army officer in the fort, came in one morning and appeared 
very much pleased as he gave us a copy of the Baltimore Sun. 
This contained an article headed "Retaliation," copied from 
the Richmond Whig, reading as follows: 

''Information having been received by the government that 
Acting Master John Y. Beall and Edward McGuire, of the 
Confederate Navj^, with sixteen men, are now confined in 
irons in Fort McHenry, to be treated as pirates. Commis- 
sioner of Exchange Robert Ould has directed that Lieutenant 
Commander Porter and Ensign Williams, with sixteen 
marines, be confined in irons in Charleston, S. C, to be held 
as hostages for the good treatment of Captain Beall and his 
command."* 

When this was read out I turned to Lieutenant Starr^ 
who seemed well pleased and said: "Now^ Lieutenant, you 
all fellows can hang us, but those Yankees will surely swing 
in Charleston." 

Whether accidentally or not, it transpired that Lieuten- 
ant-Commander Porter, who was held as hostage for Cap- 
tain Beall, was a nephew of Colonel Porter, who was at the 
time in command of Fort IMcHenry. After the war I was 
informed by Dr. Hunter IVIcGuire that when he learned that 
his brother and the rest of us were in irons he obtained per- 
mission from General Jackson to send a message to General 
]Millroy, who was then in front of Jackson, that if we were 
hung Jackson would hang five for each one of us. 

*See letter of Report Ould, Commissioner of Exchange, to Brig.-Genl. 
S. A. Meredith, Dec. 15, 1863, Appendix lY. p. 60. 



CHAPTER VII. 
FORT MONROE AND POINT LOOKOUT. 

In a few days after we learned of our government's retalia- 
tion Lieutenant Starr came in and directed us all to be carried 
up to the blacksmith shop, where all the irons were cut off. 
We were than marched to Baltimore and placed aboard of 
a Norfolk steamer, and landed at Fortress Monroe, then 
under command of General B. F. Butler.* There we were 
confined for a few days in the cell on the right side of the 
main entrance. After some delay we were carried to Nor- 
folk, and at the provost marshal's office, which was at a 
hotel on Main Street,— I think the Purcell House,— we were 
required to sign certificates stating that our irons had been 
taken off and that we were then treated as regular prisoners 
of war. 

We were then confined for about two months in Fort 
Norfolk, about one mile east of the city. After we had 
been in this fort about six weeks a fellow by the name of 
Coffin, who stated to us that he and his family had been 
most cruelly treated by the Yankees in Norfolk for expressing 
his sympathy for the South, was thrown into prison with us 
that he might fully enjoy his Southern sympathies. 

He was then placed in the same room with us, and discussed 
with us many methods of escape. One afternoon we were 
informed that the next morning we must be prepared to move 
as we were about to be taken to Point Lookout and confined 
there. That night Captain Beall arranged an elaborate 
plan for our escape on the trip up the bay, and assigned each 

*See Appendix V. p. 61, for Federal orders, directing the removal of the 
irons from Beall and his men. 



42 Memoirs of Service 

of us a certain duty to perform. I remember he directed 
me to always stand by Robert Annan, and at a signal to be 
given by his dropping a handkerchief, about the time we 
would be off Newpoint Lighthouse I was to seize the guard 
next to me by the arms from behind and Annan, who was to 
be in front, was to take his musket. 

We were all in high glee when we got aboard of the steamer, 
fully expecting to be free before night, but when we stopped 
at Fort Monroe we were all surprised to find that a com- 
pany of regulars was marched aboard, in addition to the 
small guard under which we had left Fort Norfolk. We 
were then placed in the main cabin of the steamer and formed 
in a circle with a heavy guard all around us with fixed bayo- 
nets. It was then that we learned that Coffin had been 
placed in the fort with us as a spy, and had simply informed 
General Butler of Captain Beall's intention to attempt an 
escape, against which provision was made by placing us 
under double guard. 

We landed at Point Lookout about night, and w^ere soon 
assigned to our new quarters. I had been placed in a large 
bell tent with about thirty strangers, and the others were 
placed wherever room could be found. 

Stedman and McFarland, in consequence of their influence 
had been exchanged while we were at Fort Norfolk, and as 
soon as I reached Point Lookout, I received a letter from one 
of them stating that his sister in Frankfort Ky., had by his 
request sent me about $30 in greenbacks and a new suit of 
clothing. This was sent in the care of Colonel Brady, who 
commanded the garrison at the Point. Colonel Brady gave 
me only about ten dollars to pay for articles to be bought 
at the sutler's, but never gave me over one dollar at the 
time, and the clothing I never saw. 



Memoirs of Service -^^^ 

After being at the Point about two months, I learned 
that about 500 sick prisoners were to be sent South to be 
exchanged, and being very anxious to see a young lady in 
whom I was deeply interested, I made up mind to try and 
get away with the sick. I went over to the hospital and 
had a conference with my friend, Dr. Emmet Stratton, who 
was a prisoner there at that time, but who had been assigned 
to duty as physician in the hospital. 

I tried to get Dr. Stratton to pass me as one of the sick, 
but he said that he was afraid that he could not get the 
chief surgeon to pass me, I looked so healthy. Fortunately, 
however, while in irons, as I could not get my boot off during 
the two months in which the irons had been kept on, I 
had a very severe sore on my ankle. This had not made any 
progress towards a cure, but had become worse and turned 
into a kind of scurvy. I rubbed up this sore a good deal and 
spread the blood up on my leg so as to make it appear much 
worse, rolled up my pants and rushed to the surgeon who 
was examining the men as they were brought out, and said 
Doctor, "I don't know what is the matter with me, and if I 
stay here I will never get well; please let me go." 

He turned around and in a gruff voice and asked, ''What 
is the matter with you, sir?" 

I replied, ''Doctor, I don't know, but I'll never get well 

while here." 

He said roughly, "Get over in that hne," meaning the 
line of well men, which I by mistake failed to understand, 
and took my place tremblingly in the line of sick men. After 
I had gotten in the line I kept crawling up toward the front 
of the line, until I was nearly the head of the column, and 
was safely carried aboard the flag-of-truce steamer New 
York, and placed in charge of Major Mulford, Commissioner 
of Exchange. 



44 Memoirs of Service 

We arrived at Fort Monroe the next morning, and I was 
surprised to find there hundreds of steamers lying all 
around the fort. We remained there one day and started 
for Varina, on the James River. About three o'clock the 
next day we reached City Point, where we stopped and 
anchored just opposite the Point. In a short time we were 
all surprised on looking down the river to see steamer after 
steamer rounding the point down the river, and soon a large 
transport with a regiment on deck came alongside, between 
us and the wharf at City Point, and stopped. I then heard 
a command given by a general,whom I afterwards learned was 
General B. F. Butler, to the regiment to "fire." The whole 
regiment fired upon our signal men, who were located in a 
building on the Point and were busy signalling to the sig- 
nal line up the river. Boats were soon launched and de- 
tachments sent ashore and brought back a number of the 
Confederates who failed to make their escape. 

The steamer then started forward and began to anchor on 
the Chesterfield side of the river near Bermuda Hundred, 
and by ten o'clock that night there appeared to be a city of 
steamers anchored near the point. Next morning a gun- 
boat was started up the river ahead of the New York, and we 
following with flag of truce flying. As we passed the Hun- 
dred, we found that General Butler during the night had 
landed his whole army at that place. We continued up the 
river, and soon heard an explosion, which proved as we con- 
tinued up the river to be the gunboat that had started in 
front of us. It had been blown into a thousand pieces by 
some of our torpedo men on shore. 

We soon reached Varina, and were there met by Colonel 
Ould with the same number of Federal prisoners, and in short 
time we were placed in wagons and in a happy frame of 
mind reached good old Richmond. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE EVACUATION AND APPOMATTOX. 

After receiving a furlough, I spent some days at my 
grandmother's in Chesterfield. Mr. Allegre, of the En- 
quirer, then sent for me, and placed me in charge of 
the printing and mailing of the Enquirer at night. He also 
had me placed on light duty with Major Carrington as 
clerk in the passport office, where I remained until the 
evacuation of Richmond by General Lee. The Sunday 
of the evacuation, I took charge of the passport office, 
with instructions from Colonel Carrington not to issue 
any passports to any one except by order of the 
Secretary of War, and remained in the office until about 
eight o'clock. After making out passes in my own name for 
every route out of Richmond by order of the Secretary of 
War, I went down and took charge of the work at the 
Enquirer. I asked Mr. Allegre, who was at that time post- 
master of Richmond, if he wanted me to have the paper 
printed, and he replied he didn't care a rap what I did, 
that I might print it, or not. Steam was up and I had the 
form brought down and placed on the press, and told Jim, 
the pressman, to "hold on" until I went out on the street, 
and I would come back and tell what to do. 

When I reached Main Street, I found that several fires 
were burning and that the streets were filled with scream- 
ing men and women who were breaking into stores and carry- 
ing away in wagons and in their arms everything they could 
get hands on. 

Continuing down Main Street, and turning into Pearl 



46 Memoirs of Service 

Street, I found a very pandemonium. Stores of whiskies 
and brandies were being emptied in the streets, and men 
and women were drunk and apparently crazy. I went down to 
the Richmond and Danville depot, and found that the mob 
was breaking open boxes of blankets and provisions, and 
had set fire to the depot. 

Just then I saw an engine with three or four box cars 
standing near the bridge. I ran back into the depot, 
gathered up an armful of bacon and climbed to the top of 
one of the box cars, which was filled with soldiers. The 
engine pulled out in a few minutes and we reached the 
17-mile post about nine o'clock the next morning. I jumped 
down with my bacon and ran over to my grandmother's, 
about one-half mile distant and, after giving her my supply 
of bacon, walked over to a neighbor's to say good-bye to a 
young lady friend. I then walked up to Genito, and there 
overtook the 25th Va. Battalion. Joining them, I con- 
tinued with them until the battle of Sailor's Creek, where 
after a severe battle nearly the whole brigade was captured, 
about ten of us getting away after we had been surrounded 
by General Sheridan's command. I again caught up with 
a part of General Lee's army at High Bridge, and then 
connected myself with a Texas regiment and continued with 
them until we reached Appomattox Courthouse. We had 
several slight skirmishes on our way, but no pitched battle 
after Sailor's Creek. I was paroled at Appomattox and re- 
turned via Howardsville to Chesterfield, in company of 
several of my friends who were so fortunate as to be able 
to return. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE END OF CAPTAIN BEALL. 

As soon as Capt. Beall was exchanged he set about 
organizing another party to attempt the capture of John- 
son's Island, where at that time a large number of Con- 
federate officers were confined. It appears that Secretary 
Seddon doubted his ability to enlist a sufficient number 
of men for that hazardous service, and hence Beall wrote 
the following letter to Colonel Holliday: 

Box 1122, Richmond, Va., May 23, 1864. 
Colonel Holliday : 
Dear Sir: 

I think you told me that if I could give the Secretary 
proof that I could raise fifteen men he would authorize 
me to form them into a company for the special service 
I had suggested. 

The following named gentlemen have several times as- 
sured me that they would serve with me on such, and most 
of them have done so. 

They are from the Eastern Shore and about Norfolk, 
and Missouri, Kentucky and Canada. Some are now in 
prison captured with me; others are in the Confederacy, 
and some on Eastern Shore: 

Annan, Baker, Brown, Brock, Cobb, Crouse, Chinn, 
Doughty, Fitzgerald, Hudgins, Hamson, Morehead, Reed, 
Stedman, Thomas, WTieeler, McGrim, Kiedel (19). Sev- 
eral others have made similar promises whose names I can 
not recall, and communication now is so uncertain that I 
can not get their names. I entertain no doubt of my ability 
to get more men, provided we can get the privilege of re- 



48 Memoirs of Service 

maining in this branch of service as long as such branch 
exists. 

I hope you will (not) feel troubled by my sending you 
this, and requesting you to use it if you think it will (be) 
of any assistance to me. 

Respectfully, J. Y. Be all. 

(Indorsement.) 
Hon. J. A. Seddon, May, 23, 1864. 

Dear Sir: 
I have known Mr. Beall, the writer of the within, from 
his earliest infancy, and have observed closely his bearing 
and conduct since the very beginning of the present war, 
and I beg leave to say to the Secretary, in the first place, 
that he may rely with the most implicit confidence, not only 
on assurance given within of his ability to raise the com- 
pany of men referred to, but upon any and every other 
statement that Mr. B. makes on the subject or on any other 
subject. 

I consider Mr. B. one of the most gallant and patriotic 
young gentlemen that Virginia has produced during the 
war, and that he is not less noted for intelligence and his 
loyalty to truth and honor. 

I have the best reasons for speaking thus emphatically 
of Mr. B. and I do not hesitate to pledge my own reputa- 
tion for the correctness of what I here avouch. 

Respectfully, Andrew Hunter.* 

*For full details of the trial and conviction of John Yates Beall, see J. H. 
McNeilly, John Yates Beall, (Confederate Veteran, 1899); see also Trial of 
John Y. Beall, as a Spy and Guerrillero, by Military Commission, (N. Y., 1865) ; 
Memoir of John Yates Beall: his Life; Trial; Correspondence; Diary and Pri- 
vate Manuscript found among his Papers, including his own Private Account of 
his Raid on Lake Erie (Montreal, 1865) ; see note of Beall's papers, in Freeman, 
Calendar of Confederate Papers, p. 186 (Richmond, 1908). For extracts from 
the Official Records see Appendix VI., pp. 63-69. 



Memoirs of Service 49 

Fortified by this recommendation, Beall secured the nec- 
essary consent of Secretary Seddon, and made his plans 
accordingly. I felt highly honored that he deemed me 
worthy to accompany him and I arranged to go with him. 
Captain Beall learned, however, of an easy way to get 
through the lines of the enemy to Canada, and left several of 
us in Richmond because we could not be assembled 
in time to leave with him. He was joined in Canada by 
one of his old men, Bennett Burley, a Scotchman, with 
about the same number of men he had on the bay. Cap- 
tain Beall and Burley captured the steamers Philo Parsons 
and Island Queen, plying between Detroit and Sandusky, 
intending to liberate the Confederate prisoners on Johnson 
Island. Failing in this, Captain Beall was captured and 
taken to New York, then under General Dix, was tried by 
court-martial, convicted as a spy, and hung on Governor's 
Island, New York.* 

George C. Stedman, of our party, after being exchanged, 
was assigned to General Montgomery's staff, and refusing 
to surrender was, I was informed, literally hacked to pieces 
by the sabres of his enemies. Willie Beall also did not go 
with Captain Beall to Canada, having been left for the same 
reason as myself. 

While Captain Beall was in prison and just before he 
was executed, he wrote a letter to WilUe Beall, which the 
latter showed me. 

A copy of this I append here : 

''Fort Lafayette, Feb. 14, 1865. 
"Dear Will: 
"Ere this reaches you, you will most probably have heard 



*For bibliograohy of this trial, see references under note to Andrew Hun- 
ter, preceding page. 



50 Memoirs of Service 

of my death through the newspapers, that I was tried by 
a miUtary commission, and hung by the enemy, and hung, 
I assert, unjustly. It is both useless and wrong to repine 
over the past. Hanging, it was asserted, was ignominious, 
but crime only can make dishonor. ''Vengeance is mine, 
saith the Lord, and I will repay," therefore do not show 
unkindness to the prisoners — they are helpless. Remem- 
ber me kindly to my friends. Say to them I am not aware 
of committing any crime against society. I die for my 
country. No thirst for blood or lucre animated me in 
my course. For I had refused when sohcited to engage 
in enterprises which I deemed destructive but illegitimate, 
and but a few months ago I had but to have spoken, and 
I would have been red with the blood, and rich with the 
plunder of the foe. But my hands are clear of blood, 
unless it be spilt in conflict and not a cent enriches my 
pocket. Should you be spared through this strife stay with 
mother, and be a comfort to her old age. Endure the hard- 
ships of the campaign as a man. In my trunk and box 
you can get plenty of clothes. Give my love to mother, 
the girls, too. May God bless you all now and evermore, 
is my prayer and wish for you. 

John Y. Beall." 

When the war ended, I returned to my old home in Ches- 
terfield county, and have ever since remained within one 
mile of the place where I was born, and have tried in 
an humble way to serve my neighbor and my Creator as 
unselfishly and as earnestly as my capacity would permit. 

I have never since the war met any of my old comrades, 
but I sincerely trust that an all-wise Providence has watched 
over them and blessed them to the fullest extent of their 
capacity to enjoy. 





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W. W. BAKER IN 1864 
From an amhrot^pe taken on his return from prison. 



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APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I. 

[Report of Beall's Capture of the Alliance, etc.] 

U. S. Flagship Roanoke, 

September 28, 1863. 

General : 

On receipt of your communication of September 24, 
inclosing a telegraphic dispatch from Captain Duvall, at 
Eastville, Va., reporting the presence of a rebel steamer at 
Sand Shoal Inlet on the 23rd inst., I required Lieutenant- 
Commander Gillis, commanding U. S. S. Commodore Jones 
at Yorktown, the senior naval officer in that vicinity, to 
take proper measures in the premises. 

Under date of the 27th, he communicates to me the 
facts in relation to the movements of the enemy on which 
was founded the report of Captain Duvall. These facts 
are in substance as follows: 

On the night of the 18th, a party of 25 men, under com- 
mand of one Captain Beall, crossed the bay from Matthews 
county, in two small boats, and on the 19th, captured the 
schooner Alliance, David Ireland, master, loaded with 
sutlers' goods. 

On the 21st, they seized the schooners J. J. Houseman, 
Samuel Pearsall and Alexander, took possession of their 
crews, and set sail on the vessels, lashing their hehns. 

One of these, the Samuel Pearsall, has been picked up 
and brought into Hampton Roads, and is now under charge 
of keepers from the U. S. S. Mystic. The Alliance, with 
the rebel party on board was discovered, on the 24th, by 
a blockader, on the bar at Milford Haven, and fired on. 



54 Memoirs of Service 

when the Alliance was set on fire and abandoned by her 
captors. 

Lieutenant-Commander Gillis expresses the behef that 
this party will be on their way toward Richmond within 
the next three days and that with a proper co-operating 
military force it can be broken up. 

I would suggest that the military commandant at York- 
town be immediately authorized by telegraph to co-operate 
with the naval force in effecting this object, if, on his com- 
municating with Lieutenant Commander GilUs, such an 
expedition shall seem likely to effect any desirable results. 
I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your 
obedient servant, 

GUERT GaNSEVOORT, 

Captain and Senior Officer Present. 
Maj. Gen. J. G. Foster. 



APPENDIX II. 

[Preliminaey Report of Major-General R. C. Schenck, 

Covering Reports of Brigadier-General H. H. 

lockwood.] 

Baltimore, Md., Nov. 15, 1863, 9:15 P. M. 
Col. J. C. Kelton, Assistant Adjutant-General, 
The following telegrams just received. 

Drummondtown, Va., November 15, 1863. 

A small party of raiders landed on the Chesapeake shore 
j^esterday, but before they could get into the interior they 
were met by an equal number of my coast guard, by whom 
they were all captured, after the firing of one or two vol- 
leys. They are a part of a larger party, under Captain 
Beall of the rebel navy, who are doubtless hovering about 
the coast somewhere; but my pickets and coast guard are 
on the alert and will come up with them, should they at- 
tempt a landing. 

Henry H. Lockwood, 

Brigadier-G eneral . 

Since the above was written, one of my coasting vessel 
fell in with the notorious Captain Beall himself, in command 
of another party and succeeded in capturing him with his 
whole party, numbering 3 commissioned officers and 6 
men. I think this will put an end to these depredations. 

Henry H. Lockwood, 
Brigadier-General. 

Robert C. Schenck, 

Major-General. 



56 Memoirs of Service 



[Detached Report of Brigadier-General Lockwood, 
U. S. Army, of the Capture of Acting Master 
Beall, C. S. Navy and Party.] 

Headquarters, First Separate Brigade, Eighth Army Corps. 

Drummondtown, Va., November 16, 1863. 
Colonel : 

I have the honor to forward the enclosed reports of the 
capture of John Y. Beall, master in the rebel navy, and his 
crew of 14 men, by Lieutenant John W. Conner and Ser- 
geant Robert R. Christopher, of Company B, First Eastern 
Shore Maryland Volunteers, each of these officers com- 
manding separate detachments, on the 14th and 15th of 
November. 

This is a highly important capture. The officer in charge 
of the party is the same who commanded the attack against 
the gunboats on the Rappahannock River, which resulted 
in their capture, and admits that he was in charge of the 
party by whom the lighthouses on this shore were destroyed, 
and the Government transports captured on the Atlantic 
Coast. He further admits that the object of this raid was 
the capture of a steamer. The conduct of the officers 
before referred to is highly commendable. The party of 
rebels were captured in two detachments, one by Lieu- 
tenant Conner, the other by Sergeant Christopher; and 
each detachment, although much better armed than ours, 
was captured by an equal number of our men, which never 
could have been effected but by the bravery and deter- 
mination of these officers. 

I would therefore recommend that the Major-General 
commanding recognize the intrepidity and valuable service 



Memoiks of Service 57 

manifested and rendered by these officers on this occasion 
by letter. 

I would further call the attention of the Major-General 
commanding to the status of these prisoners. They are 
unable to show anything which, in my judgment, would 
entitle them to be considered or treated as prisoners of 
war. They are without orders and many of them without 
uniform. It appears by the shipping articles (of which I 
have obtained possession and which are herewith for- 
warded) that they are but partisans receiving no pay from 
the so-called Confederate States, and trusting entirely for 
remuneration for their services to the possession of such 
property, public or private, as they may chance to capture. 

If, after deliberation, the Major-General commanding 
shall agree with me that these parties are not entitled to 
be considered and treated as prisoners of war, I would 
respectfully suggest that they be tried either by military 
commission or that they be sent back here for trial by the 
civil authorities of Accomac and Northampton counties, 
where the depredations have been committed, as is pro- 
vided for in the Virginia Code, 1860. I am rather inclined 
to think the latter course would be the preferable one, 
inasmuch as some of the citizens seem to be considerably 
incensed against these raiders, and I think twelve men at 
least in the county of Accomac can be procured who will 
be disposed to deal with these fellows as their outrages 
deserve. 

Further than this, a trial and conviction of these offeru- 
ders by the civil authorities would have a great effect 
upon the political status of these counties, inasmuch as it 
would inflame the rebel authorities against them, and by 
that means a counter in action would be produced. As 
this is understood to be but one of three or four bands of 



58 Memoies of Service 

outlaws of the same character, it is highly important that 
a precedent in regard to them should be determined upon. 

Henry H. Lockwood, 
Brigadier-General Commanding. 

Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Chesebrough., 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 



APPENDIX III. 

[Order of Major-General Schenck, U. S. A., to Brig- 
adier General Lockwood, U. S. A., Regarding 
Disposition of Acting Master Beall, C. S. Navy 
and Party.] 

Headquarters, Middle Department, Eighth Army Corps. 

Baltimore, November 21, 1863. 
General : 

Your report with enclosed papers relating to the capture 
of John Y. Beall and his crew of 14 men, has been received. 

The general commanding appreciates highly the bravery 
and sagacity of Lieutenant John W. Conner and Sergeant 
Robert C. Christopher, of the First Regiment, Eastern 
Shore Maryland Volunteers, who commanded the detach- 
ments that captured these prisoners, and of the men under 
their respective commands, and he directs that you com- 
mend these officers and men in general orders for their good 
conduct on that occasion. 

As to the prisoners themselves they will be held for the 
present not as prisoners of war, but as pirates or marauding 
robbers, until the further pleasure of the Secretary of War, 
to whom the matter will be submitted, shall be known. 
Not being protected by commissions or any orders produced 
from the pretended rebel Government, they will probably 
be tried as pirates or robbers either in the United States 
court or the local court, unless ordered to trial by mihtary 
commission. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, W. H. Chesebrough, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General. 
Brigadier-General H. H. Lockwood, 
Commanding First Separate Brigade, Drummondtown, Va. 



APPENDIX IV. 

[Okder for Retaliatory Measures Against Federal 
Prisoners. Following Indignities to Beall at 
Fort McHenry.] 

Confederate States of America, War Department, 

Richmond, Va., December 15, 1863. 

Brigadier-General S. A. Meredith, Agent of Exchange, 

Sir: 

The Confederate Government has received authentic 
information that acting master John Y. Beall and Edward 
McGuire of the Confederate Navy, and fifteen regularly- 
enlisted seamen of the same service are now closely con- 
fined in irons at Fort McHenry, awaiting trial as pirates. 
They were recently captured in Virginia. They were en- 
gaged in open warfare and are entitled in every respect 
to the treatment of prisoners of war. 

With whatever regret retaliatory measures may be adop- 
ted, the course of your authorities leaves no other alter- 
native. In the hope, therefore, of inducing your Govern- 
ment to accord to these parties the treatment due to pris- 
oners of war, I inform you that Lieut. Commander Edward 
P. Williams and Ensign Benjamin H. Porter and fifteen 
seamen all of the U. S. Navy and prisoners in our hands, have 
been placed in close confinement in irons and held as hos- 
tages for their proper treatment. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Ro. OULD, 
Agent of Exchange. 



APPENDIX V. 

[Order for Removal of Irons from Beall and His Men.] 

War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, 

Washington, January 11, 1864. 

Major-General B. F. Butler, U. S. Volunteers, 

Comdg. Dept. of Virginia and N, C, Fort Monroe, Va., 

Sir: 

By direction of the Secretary of War, Brigadier-General 
Lockwood, commanding Middle Department, has this day 
been instructed to send to you in irons, Beall and his party, 
some fourteen in number, now held in confinement at Fort 

McHenry. 

The Secretary directs that on receipt of Beall and his 
party you cause their irons to be removed preparatory 
to an investigation of their cases, which you will order, 
and that as soon as the irons are removed you immediately 
send notice of the fact to the rebel agent of exchange. 
Acknowledge receipt. 

I am, su-, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 

Fort Monroe, Va., February 22, 1864. 

General Ed. R. S. Canby: 

Two officers are kept by the rebels prisoners in irons and 
in close confinement in alleged retahation to two captains 
kept in prison by order of General Burnside, having been 



62 Memoirs of Service 

tried by court-martial. I have addressed Mr. Ould on the 
subject by last flag of truce and expect an answer soon. 

Benj. F. Butler, 

Major-General. 

(Indorsement.) 

February 22, 1864. 

The two officers in irons in Richmond are army officers. 
They were placed in irons, as General Butler states, in 
retaliation for two officers supposed to be similarly held 
under General Burnside's orders. 

The rebels are in error in supposing that two of their 
officers are in irons as they allege. 

General Terry has been communicated with on the 
subject, and by telegraph states that fact as above- 

The naval officers placed in irons on account of Beall's 
marauding party have been released from close confinement, 
I understand, but General Butler must know, and it would 
be well to inquire of him. 

E. A. Hitchcock, 
Major-General of Volunteers. 



APPENDIX VI. 

[Documents relating to the trial and execution op 
John Yates Beall.] 

[Beall's Request for Counsel Refused.] 

New York, January 17, 1865. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton: 

The court ordered for the trial of Captain Beall of the 
rebel service as a spy met at Fort Lafayette this morning. 
Will commence their proceedings on Friday, two days hav- 
ing been given to him for preparation. He asks that Roger 
A. Pryor, a fellow prisoner, may be allowed to act as his 
counsel. I think it would be best on every account that 
his request should be granted; but as Pryor is a prisoner of 
war your permission seems to me necessary to warrant his 
appearance before the court in that capacity. If the per- 
mission is not given he will probably ask the court to allow 
him to employ leading counsel from this city. 

John A. Dix, 
Major General. 

War Department, Washington City, January 19, 1865. 

Major-General Dix, New York: 

Under no circumstances can prisoners of war be allowed 
to act as counsel for a person accused of being a spy. 

C. A. Dana, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 



64 Memoirs of Service 

[Action of the Confederate Government: Letter of 
President Jefferson Davis, With Enclosures.] 

Richmond, Va., March 14, 1865. 

The House of Representatives: 

In response to your resolution of the 2d instant I herewith 
transmit for your information communications from the 
Secretary of the Navy and the Commissioner for the Ex- 
change of Prisoners relative to the trial and execution of 
John Y. Beall, Acting master in the C. S. Navy, by the 

authorities of the United States. 

Jefferson Davis. 

(Enclosure No. 1) 

Confederate States of America Navy Department, 

Richmond, Va., March 4, 1865. 
The President, 
Sir: 
I have the honor to state in response to the following 
resolution of the House of Representatives, referred by you 
to this Department. 

"Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to 
communicate to this House any information he may have 
with regard to the execution of John Y. Beall, of Jefferson 
County, Va., by the authorities of the Federal Government; 
and whether any and what action has been taken by this 
Government upon the subject." 

That the only information I have with regard to the execu- 
tion of John Y. Beall is derfved from the Federal newspapers, 
whose accounts of the event were occupied by the Richmond 
papers of the 27th ultimo. 



Memoies of Service 65 

Triplicate copies of Mr. Beall's appointment as an acting 
master in the Navy were furnished to the Department of 
State, upon request of the Secretary of State, so soon as his 
arrest was known here, and another copy was sent by me to 
the Hon. Jacob Thompson in Canada. 

The printed sHp herewith, from the Federal newspapers, 
purporting to give the details of the arrest, trial and convic- 
tion of Mr. Beall, is inclosed for further information. 
I am, respectfully your obedient servant, 

S. R. Mallory, 
Secretary of the Navy. 

(Sub-enclosure) 

Extract from a Federal newspaper: 

"The following extract from the order of General Dix 
approving the findings and sentences of the court gives a 
succinct account of his attempt on the Northern frontier: 

" 'The testimony shows that the accused, while holding a 
commission from the authorities at Richmond as acting 
master in the Navy of the insm-gent states, embarked at 
Sandwich, Canada, on board the Philo Parsons, an unarmed 
steamer, while on one of her regular trips, carrying passen- 
gers and freight from Detroit, in the State of Michigan, to 
Sandusky, in the State of Ohio. The captain had been 
induced by Burley, one of the Confederates of the accused, 
to land at Sandwich, which was not one of the regular stop- 
ping places of the steamer, for the purpose of receiving 
them. Here the accused and two others took passage. At 
Maiden, another Canadian port and one of the regular 
stopping places about twenty five more came on board. 
The accused was in citizens' dress showing no insignia of 
his rank or profession, embarking as an ordinary passenger 



66 Memoirs of Service 

and representing himself to be on a pleasure trip to Kelley's 
Island, in Lake Erie, within the jurisdiction of the State of 
Ohio. After eight hours he and his associates, arming 
themselves with revolvers and handaxes brought surrepti- 
tiously on board, rose on the crew, took possession of the 
steamer, threw overboard part of the freight, and robbed 
the clerk of the money in his charge, putting all on board 
under duress. Later in the evening he and his party took 
possession of another unarmed steamer, the Island Queen, 
scuttled her and set her adrift on the Lake. These trans- 
actions occurred within the jurisdiction of the State of 
Ohio on the IPth day of September, 1864. On the 16th 
day of December, 1864, the accused was arrested near the 
Suspension Bridge over the Niagara River, within the State 
of New York. The testimony shows that he and two 
officers of the insurgent States, Colonel Martin and Lieu- 
tenant Headley, with two other Confederates, had made 
an unsuccessful attempt under the direction of the first 
named officer, to throw the passenger train coming from 
the west to Buffalo off the railroad track, for the purpose 
of robbing the express company. It is further shown that 
this was the third attempt in which the accused was con- 
cerned to accomplisli the same object; that between two 
of these attempts the party including the accused, went 
to Canada and returned, and that they were on their way 
back to Canada on Lake Erie; the accused, though holding 
a commission from the insurgent authorities at Richmond 
in disguise, procuring information with the intention of using 
it, as he sub'^qtif etly did, to infhct injury upon unarmed 
citizens of the United States and their privat/e property.' 



Memoirs op Service 67 



ARREST. 



"Beall was arrested through information received on the 
Canadian border by John S. Young, chief of the Metro- 
politan Detective Police. Mr. Young also received at the 
same time information concerning one of the principal 
witnesses against the pirate, and the party being brought 
to New York, fully identified Beall by picking him out of 
a crowd in one of the rooms at police headquarters. The 
recognition by this witness was complete, he having in- 
stantly stepped up to Beall and called him by name, much 
to the discomfiture of the rebel captain. After this identi- 
fication the prisoner was confined in one of the cells at police 
headquarters, but having attempted to corrupt one of the 
turnkeys by offering him $3,000 in gold for a chance to 
escape, it was considered better to send him to Fort La- 
fayette. 

TRIAL. 

"The military commission which tried him was convened 
on board the steamer Henry Burden while she was convey- 
ing the pirate to the fort, but as he desired a week's delay 
to procure counsel and prepare for his trial it was granted 
him. 

"He received the professional services of James T. Brady, 
Esq., and his trial was commenced on the 10th of February 
upon the following charges and specifications.* 

"After a careful hearing the prisoner was found guilty 
of all the specifications, except of the third in the second 
charge and guilty of both charges. The court sentenced 
him to be hung, and General Dix approved the sentence, 

• Omitted. 



68 Memoirs of Service 

directing that it be carried into execution at Governor's 
Island on Saturday, the 18th of February." 

(Enclosure No. 2.) 

Richmond, March 11, 1865. 

His Excellency, the President, 

Sir: 
In the matter of the accompanying resolution of the 
House of Representatives I have the honor to submit the 
following report: 

The case of Acting Master John Y. Beall was never 
brought to the attention of this office by any communica- 
tion, verbal or written, prior to his execution. The pro- 
ceedings of the military commission which tried him were 
not pubHshed in the Northern papers until the 15th of 
February. The day for his execution has been fixed for 
the 18:h of the same month, as if for the purpose of making 
any efforts in his behalf by his Government impossible. 
He was reprieved from the 18th to the 24th, though it 
seems to have been quietly, if not secretly, done. For some 
days after the 24th it was not known here whether or not 
he had been executed. On the 27th of February, I re- 
ceived a letter from him, of which the following is a copy, 
which was forwarded by order of General Dix after the un- 
fortunate man had been put to death : 

"Fort Columbus, February 21, 1865. 
"Col. R. Ould, Commissioner of Exchange, Richmond, Va. 

"Sir: 

"The proceedings of a military commission in my case 
published in the New York papers of the 15th instant made 
you and my Government aware of my sentence and doom. 
A reprieve, on account of some informality, from the 18th 



Memoirs of Service 69 

to 24th was granted. The authorites are possessed of the 
facts in my case. They know that I acted under orders. 
I appeal to my Government to use its utmost efforts to 
protect me, and if unable to prevent my murder to vindi- 
cate my reputation. I can only declare that I was no 
'spy' or 'guerrilla,' and am a true Confederate. 

Respectfully, 

John Y. Beall, 
Acting Master, C. S. Navy." 

The cruelty of the enemy was so swift that no sufficient 
time intervened between a knowledge of the facts and the 
execution to enable any proceedings to be taken. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. OULD. 

Agent of Exchange. 

[General U. S. Grant's Report of Intended Retalia- 
tion.] 

City Point, Va., March 4, 1865. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War : 

Richmond papers of today do not contain a single item 
of information. 

The Dispatch says : 

We have no official intelligence from the seat of war in 
the South, and for two days not even a rumor. The Legis- 
lature of Vu-ginia passed a joint resolution recommending 
the adoption of such steps as may be necessary in retahation 

for the execution of Captain Beall. 

U. S. Grant, 

Lieutenant-General. 






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